Phone hacking: Papers face new allegations

ALEX DIAZ

DETECTIVES investigating the phone hacking scandal are examining fresh claims after new evidence came to light, a lawyer representing victims said yesterday.

Scotland Yard contacted senior lawyers representing victims to say the new allegations relate to the now-defunct News of the World’s feature desk and Trinity Mirror titles.

Victims’ lawyer Mark Stephens, who represented murdered schoolgirl Sarah Payne’s mother Sara, said he could not confirm reports that 600 fresh allegations have emerged, or that they have come from a whistleblower being lined up as a crown witness.

Fresh legal actions are now expected to come from new victims and litigants who have already settled with News of the World publisher News International but signed agreements allowing them to sue again.

Stephens said: “We have been told a significant amount of information has just come to light which the police have not yet had time to go through.

“They are doing so methodically and carefully. But until they have finished analysing it, it is very ­difficult to say how it will come out.”

Police were expected to conclude their Operation Weeting investigation into the phone hacking scandal by the end of this year.

But Stephens said a 2016 conclusion is now “more likely”.

The revelation comes after four current and former Trinity Mirror journalists were arrested in early morning raids on Thursday.

People editor James Scott and deputy editor Nick Buckley were held, along with former editor of the Sunday Mirror Tina Weaver and its former deputy editor Mark Thomas.